40 Under 40

Thomas V. Thornton, 33

President,
Illinois Coalition

An Illinois high-tech firm would have to be awfully new or obscure to avoid showing up on Tom Thornton's radar screen.

As head of the Illinois Coalition, a Chicago non-profit aimed at boosting the state's high-tech sector, Mr. Thornton is a financial aid coordinator, information clearinghouse and relentless cheerleader for embryonic firms sparked by cutting-edge science.

"He's become the focal point," says Donald Perkins, retired chairman of Jewel Cos. and founder of the coalition, an outgrowth of early-'80s efforts by government, business, labor and academic leaders to land the multibillion-dollar superconducting super collider project (which went to Texas but eventually was killed by Congress).

Tapped to run the coalition in 1994, Mr. Thornton drafted a detailed agenda for creating high-tech jobs, which led the state to allocate $5 million in seed money for start-up companies plus $10 million in matching grants for federal research projects.

"We don't want to spend tens of millions of dollars to lure companies to Illinois," says Mr. Thornton, a former science adviser to U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Yorkville. "We want to grow from within."

With the coalition's state and private funding at an all-time high, Mr. Thornton's low-budget, one-man-and-a-secretary operation now boasts a staff of five and organizes get-togethers for investors and entrepreneurs.

"He's gotten more done with less money than anyone I've worked with in the non-profit sector," says Mr. Perkins.

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